Carney: W. H. Will ‘Make an Effort To Cooperate in a Bipartisan Fashion’ with New Senate

Carney: White House Will ‘Make an Effort To Cooperate in a Bipartisan Fashion’ with New Senate (RealClearPolitics)

"It's pretty clear that unless Democrats are able to pick up some Senate seats at this point, it's likely the Republicans would take the Senate. They would have to pick up a seat in Georgia, for example, or pick up a seat elsewhere in the nation, because they're going to have to offset some of these losses. And we know other states that Republicans are likely to win, there will be pickups, and there are only three left. I think no matter what happens, and I think it's likely that Republicans win the Senate, the White House was planning to and will try to engage with the new leaders of the Senate and the Congress and make an effort to demonstrate a willingness to cooperate in a bipartisan fashion. I think we saw reported earlier from the White House, one of the CNN correspondents, saying that a White House official had said we have to see whether the Republicans are willing to do the same. One of the problems I know we felt in the White House working with Republicans, John Boehner and Mitch McConnell was that there wasn't ultimately the willingness to compromise on things where there should be areas of compromise available. On tax reform, on immigration reform, on infrastructure. This is an area where Democrats and Republicans have historically been able to find common ground. Our nation's crying out for infrastructure investment and there has been nothing but gridlock."